The Australian Olympic Gold Medalist freestyle swimmer Mackenzie Mack Horton has thanked an anonymous fan during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The fan remarkably saved his life by noticing an unusual mole on Horton’s chest. He posted an Instagram photo last Friday with caption “Shout out to the person that emailed the swim team doctor and told me to get my mole checked out. Good call. Very good call.”
A photo posted by uoʇɹoɥ ʞɔɐɯ (@mackhorton) on Oct 20, 2016 at 5:09pm PDT
The 20-year-old Olympic swimmer even tweeted.
Shout out to the person that emailed the swim team doctor and told me to get my mole checked… https://t.co/f9plcNjqCn — Mack Horton (@_mackhorton) October 21, 2016
Fox 59 news reported that in a post on the Olympic swimmer Horton's Facebook page, the Melanoma Institute of Australia were glad to hear the Olympic Gold medalist had the mole checked out. They also thanked Horton for raising awareness about how significant it is to have regular skin checks.
A supporter also posted that it is an overwhelming issue for the Olympic Gold medalist to share something that is considered such a small thing to many people and that by getting a skin check regularly can save many lives.
According to Independent News, in the images of the Olympic Gold medalist over the track of his career, it can be noticed that the mole is really growing bigger and bigger and turning darker, which are the two common dangerous signs that a previously benign mole no doubt has become a malignant mole.
Australia has one of the highest numbers and mortality rates when it comes to skin cancer in the world, which is two to three times higher than the rates in the UK, the US, and Canada.
According to Cancer Council Australia, skin cancer can account for more or around 80 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers in the country.
It can be recalled that Olympic Gold medalist Horton was the subject of an awful controversy during the 2016 Rio Olympics after taking home the gold medal in the men's 400m freestyle finals. This was because he called the Chinese runner-up Sun Yang a "drug cheat."
